Iconic East End photographer, artist and diarist Peter Beard, 82, has been found dead after 19 days of search since he went missing in New York.

He was found near his home in Montauk, East Hampton Town.

In a statement, his family said, "We are all heartbroken by the confirmation of our beloved Peter's death. He died where he lived: in nature."

Adding, "He lived life to the fullest; he squeezed every drop out of every day."

According to the police, a hunter found his remains over the weekend in a remote wooded area of a state park in Long Island, east of New York City.

Beard received a special dispensation from President Jomo Kenyatta to purchase a tract he called Hog Ranch with the mandate in 1960, and in October 2017, his silver gelatin print collage of orphaned cheetah cubs near Nyeri, Kenya, sold for $672,500.